Cutter bar for rolled material



March 16, 1965 s. M. SAX ETAL CUTTER BAR FOR ROLLED MATERIAL Filed Aug. 24, 1964 7 qnblll FIG. 3

l I I I l 5 RD Ml 0N T MMX P wm N. 5 /FM H Y N MM m A mm 2 Y B M F United States Patent Office 3,173,591 Patented Mar. 16, 1965 3,173,591 CUTTER BAR FOR ROLLED MATERLAL Sidney M. Sax, Franklin, and Charles F. Hyland, Walpole, Mass, assignors to Rust Craft Greeting Cards, Inc, Dedham, Mass, a corporation of Delaware Filed Aug. 24, 1964, Ser. No. 391,366 Claims. (Cl. 22566) This invention relates to a cutter bar for rolled material and more particularly to a cutting and supporting unit adapted to facilitate the unrolling of a flexible material, such as fancy wrapping paper, and to provide an edge by which the material can be cut from the roll.

This invention is particularly concerned with rolls of wrapping paper and like materials having a roll width of approximately 24 to 36 inches. Such rolls are clumsy to handle because of their size and with conventional cutting accessories it is especially difficult to achieve a straight and clean tear of the material across the entire width. With presently used devices of the class with which we are concerned, the paper does not unroll smoothly and the tear is often ragged.

An alternate solution has been to provide a box into which the roll is loosely placed. This box has a hinged top cover and a serrated top or bottom edge. The material is pulled from within the box and is cut off on the box edge. This solution has the undesired aspect of preventing the purchaser from viewing the material before purchase. This is of little or no importance in the case of waxed paper, cellophane or foil, but is of primary importance in the marketing of fancy printed gift wrapping paper which comes in a wide variety of colors and patterns. Sales of such papers are made on the basis of immediate visual impact. Therefore, it is necessary that the rolled material be easily and immediately seen by the purchaser in the store.

Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a cutter bar which will in no way shield the rolled material from the view of the purchaser.

It is another object of this invention to provide a cutter bar which is inexpensive to fabricate and which can be assembled onto the material roll simply and easily.

It is another object of this invention to provide a cutter bar that will enable the user to quickly and smoothly unroll the material and to achieve a clean straight tear without applying pressure to or moving his hand along the cutter bar.

It is another object of this invention to provide a cutter bar which itself provides a hand-grip thereby permitting the user to grasp the free edge of the material in one hand and the cutter bar in the other hand and, with a quick divergent movement, to unroll the material and to tear it from the roll.

It is another object of this invention to provide a cutter bar which forms a stable base whereby the material roll and associated cutter bar can be set on a surface having a slope up to 45 degrees without'accidentally rolling away.

It is another object of this invention to provide a cutter bar having upturned lateral margins. Such a construction has great longitudinal rigidity which facilitates the making of a clean straight tear without the need for hand pressure on or hand movement along the cutter bar during the tearing operation.

Other objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent from a study of the accompanying drawings and descriptive matter in which is illustrated and described a preferred embodiment of the invention.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a view in perspective of a cutter bar embodying the features of this invention;

FIG. 2 is a view in perspective of an enlarged portion of the cutter bar of FIG. 1 shown with the material roll inserted therein;

FIG. 3 is a top plan view of a portion of the blank from which the cutter bar of FIG. 1 is formed;

FIG. 4 is an end elevation of the cutter bar and material roll of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 5 is a View in section taken along line 55 of FIG. 4.

Referring now more particularly to the preferred embodiment of this invention, illustrated in FIG. 1, the cutter bar is generally designated 10. The bar is preferably made from light gauge aluminum or steel although it could alternatively be made from plastic or heavy paperboard.

FIG. 3 illustrates cutter bar 10 after it has been blanked out and is still entirely flat. The bar 10 consists of a base strip 12, two side walls 14 and 16 running along the lateral margins of base strip 12 and two retaining fingers 18 and 20 extending from the end margins of base strip 12.

Side walls 14 and '16 are upturned from the plane of base strip 12, preferably at right angles thereto, and increase the structural strength of the cutter bar. This U-shaped configuration is extremely rigid and resists longitudinal bending despite the cutter bars high ratio of length to width which, in the preferred embodiment, is approximately thirty inches to one and one-half inches.

As can 'be seen in FIGS. 2 and 5, a roll 21 of flexible material is inserted into cutter bar 10 and is cradled and supported by the upper edges 22 and 24 of side walls 14 and 16, respectively. Roll 21 has a slightly shorter length than cutter bar 10 and is centrally positioned thereon. Roll 21 consists of a hollow core 26, normally formed of spiralled cardboard tubing, and a length of flexible material 28, such as paper, which is wound around core 26. Many kinds of flexible material are suitable for use with this invention, e.g. waxed paper, cellophane, aluminum foil, or kraft paper. However, this invention is particularly adapted for use with gift wrapping paper on which is imprinted an attractive design or pattern, usually in bright and festive colors.

A satisfactory embodiment of this invention consists of a fifteen foot length of thirty inch wide light-weight paper rolled on a two inch diameter cardboard core.

One of the upper edges (22, 24) of the side walls may be sharpened or serrated for easier tearing of the rolled material. (For example see FIG. 3.) The need for this will depend upon the tearing resistance of the rolled material. For light-weight gift wrapping paper, however, this provision has been found unnecessary.

The upturned side walls 14 and 16, in the preferred embodiment, contact the material roll 21 at a forty-five degree angle to the tangent of the roll. This cutting edge angle greatly increases the cutting efliciency of the unit over a cutting edge that lies in the tangential plane.

The retaining fingers 18 and 20 act to limit the displacement of material roll 21 from the cutter bar. The upturned portions 30 and 32 prevent longitudinal sliding and the intur ned or centrally extending portions 34 and 36 loosely engage the roll core 26 to restrain vertical roll displacement. The height of the upturned portions 30 and 32 is less than that of the side walls 14 and 16 which causes the roll to be securely held in cradle-fashion within the cutter bar. The spacing of the centrally extending portions 34 and 36 of the retaining fingers above base strip 12 must be selected with regard to the material roll diameter and the side wall upper edge locations so that regardless of the amount of material remaining on the roll, the roll will revolve smoothly yet still be held snugly enough in the cutter bar to facilitate proper tearing action.

It may be necessary to intermittently adjust the position of the inturned portions 34 and 36 when rolls having extraordinarily long material lengths are used.v However,

generally speaking, there should be'no need for such adjustment. V

The assembled cutter bar and material roll unit can be packaged for sale by covering the entire unit with a trans parent shrink film, such as polypropylene film, which will prevent abrasion and soiling yet permit viewing by the purchaser.

. The cutter bar and roll unit, as just described, also has the desired feature of stability when placed on an uneven surface or when accidentally pushed by the user.

The preferred embodiment, having a one and one-half inch wide metal base strip 12 and a roll diameter of two inches will remain stationary on a forty-five degree slope. This feature eliminates the annoying characteristic of many previous devices which frequently rolled or were knocked to the floor during use.

An additional important function of the cutter bar 1%) is to provide a full hand grip whereby the hand supporting the roll and bar unit need not touch, the revolving paper. In previous devices, it has often been necessary for the supporting hand to hold the revolving-roll tightly enough not to drop it, yet loosely enough to permit the stripping of the rolled material. The present invention eliminates this difficult and rather clumsy juggling action.

Operation To use the cutter bar and roll unit, the user grasps the cutter bar in the palm of one upturned hand and grasps the edge of the rolled material with the other hand. The material is then smoothly stripped from the roll with a divergent hand movement until the desired material length is unrolled. The material-holding hand is then lowered and moved toward the body to apply pressure between one lateral edge of the material and the side Wall upper edge. Continued angular pressure produces a clean tear entirely across the material sheet. p

It is not necessary for the hand grasping the cutter bar to touch the rollor to move at all. It is also not neces-, sary for the material-holding hand to shift positions there on. The described procedure operates satisfactorily even with widths of material up to and often exceeding fortyeight inches. 1

An alternative method of operation is to fasten the base strip of the cutter bar to the, edge of a level surface, such as a table top, whereby only one hand is required .to strip off the rolled material and to tear it oif in the previously described manner. This type of arrangement would be favored by large volume users, such as the gift wrap de- We claim:

1. A cutter bar for use with flexible material on a roll comprising: a rigid planar base strip disposed beneath the material roll, said base strip extending longitudinally parallel to the material roll. axis; side walls formed integral with and upturned at a right angle from the lateral margins of saidplanar basestrip, the upper edges of said side walls cradling and supporting said material. roll, one of said side wall upper edges forming a material cutting edge; and retaining fingers formed integral with and bent upwardlyfrom the end margins of sai-d planar base-strip, the upper tips of said retaining fingers bent centrally ,to loosely engage the hollow interior of the material roll to retain the roll again st said side walls While permitting rotation thereof. 7 a g 2. Apparatus of claim 1 wherein said side wall material cutting edge is serrated. a

3. Apparatus of claim 1 wherein said planar base strip has screw holes cut therein to facilitate mounting of the has suficient width and weight to form a stable base by means of which the cradled rolled material will remain stationary on a surface having a slope of forty-five degrees.

5. Apparatus of claim'l wherein said cutter bar is shaped to provide a hand grip for use during theunrolling and cutting of the flexible material. 7

6. Apparatus of claim 1 wherein said planar base strip, said side Walls and said retaining fingers are integral With and formed from asingleblank of sheet metal.

7. Apparatus of claim 1 wherein the upper tips of said retaining fingers are bent into the roll interior and lie in a plane parallel to said base strip.

8. Apparatus of claim 1 wherein the upper edges of said side walls extend abovethe. 'upper tips of said retaining fingers.

9'. Apparatus of claim 1 wherein said sidewalls contact said material roll at an angle of approximately forty-five degrees with'the tangent of the roll. V

10. A cutter barfor use with flexible material on a roll comprising; a rigid planar base strip disposed beneath the material roll, said base strip extending longitudinally parallel to the material roll axis; sidewalls formed integral with and upturned fromjthe lateral margins of said planar base strip, the upper edges. of said side walls cradling and supporting the material roll, one of saidside wall upper edges forming a material cutting. edge; and retaining fingers formed integral with and bent upwardly from the end margins of said planar base strip, a portion of each said retainingfinger bent centrally to loosely engage the hollow interior of. the material roll, said retain-.

ing finger portions disposed below said side wall upper edges to retain the roll against said side wall upper edges during the cutting operation and to permit roll rotation during the unrolling operation.

References Cited by the E xaminer UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,915,736 6/33 Hurlbut 225 9.1 x 1,952,431. 3/34 Glucket a1 22s 91 X ANDREW R. JUHASZ, Primary Examiner; DONALD L. MAXSON, Examiner. 

1. A CUTTER BAR OF USE WITH FLEXIBLE MATERIAL ON A ROLL COMPRISING: A RIGID PLANAR STRIP DISPOSED BENEATH THE MATERIAL ROLL, SAID BASE STRIP EXTENDING LONGITUDINALLY PARALLEL TO THE MATERIAL ROLL AXIS; SIDE WALLS FORMED INTEGRAL WITH AND UPTURNED AT A RIGHT ANGLE FROM THE LATERAL MARGINS OF SAID PLANAR BASE STRIP, THE UPPER EDGES OF SAID SIDE WALLS CRADLING AND SUPPORTING SAID MATERIAL ROLL, ONE OF SAID SIDE WALL UPPER EDGES FORMING A MATERIAL CUTTING EDGE; AND RETAINING FINGERS FORMED INTEGRAL WITH SAID BENT UPWARDLY FROM THE END MARGINS OF SAID PLANAR BASE STRIP, THE UPPER TIPS OF SAID RETAINING FINGERS BENT CENTRALLY TO LOOSELY ENGAGE THE HOLLOW INTERIOR OF THE MATERIAL ROLL TO RETAIN THE ROLL AGAINST SAID SIDE WALLS WHILE PERMITTING ROTATION THEREOF. 